Mine to Possess Read Free Page B

by a wall of black. “No.”
    â€œIt was a car crash.”
    â€œNo!”
    It had driven him to his knees, torn him to pieces from the inside out. But the depth of that hurt, the cutting, tearing pain, was nothing to this rejection. Yet in spite of the blood she’d drawn, he still wanted to—no, needed to—touch her. However, when he raised a hand, she flinched.
    She couldn’t have done anything designed to cause more harm to his protective animal heart. He fought the pain as he always did—by shutting away the softness and letting the rage out to roam. These days, he rarely stopped being angry. But today, the hurt refused to die. It clawed through him, threatening to make him bleed.
    â€œI never hurt you,” he grit out between clenched teeth.
    â€œI can’t forget the blood, Clay.” Her voice shook. “I can’t forget.”
    Neither could he. “I saw your death certificate.” After the first shock had passed, he’d known it for a lie. But…“I need to know that you’re real, that you’re alive.”
    This time, when he raised his hand to her cheek, she didn’t flinch. But neither did she lean into his touch as she’d always done as a child. Her skin was delicate, honey-colored. Freckles danced across the bridge of her nose and along her cheekbones. “You haven’t been staying out of the sun.”
    She gave him a startled look followed by a shy smile that hit him like a kick to the gut. “Never was much good at that.”
    At least she hadn’t changed in that respect. But so much about her had changed. His Tally had come running into his arms every day for five of the happiest years of his life, looking to him as her protector and friend. Now, she pushed at his hand until he dropped it, the silent reiteration of her rejection searing a cold burn across his soul. It made his voice harsh when he said, “If you hate me so much, why did you find me?” Why couldn’t she have left him his memories—of a girl who had seen in him only goodness?
    Those memories were all he’d had left in his fight to stay in the light. He had always carried darkness inside his heart but now it beckoned every waking minute, whispering silvery promises of the peace to be found in not feeling, not hurting. Even the powerful bonds of Pack were no longer strong enough to hold him, not when the lure of violence beat at him night and day, hour after hour, second after excruciating second.
    Talin’s eyes widened. “I don’t hate you. I could never hate you.”
    â€œAnswer the question, Talin.” He wouldn’t call her Tally again. She wasn’t his Tally, the sole human being who had ever loved his misbegotten soul before he’d been dragged into DarkRiver. This was Talin, a stranger. “You want something.”
    Her cheeks blazed with fire. “I need help.”
    He could never turn her away, no matter what. But he listened impassively, his tenderness for her threatening to twist into something that wanted to strike out and hurt. If he betrayed the depth of his fury, if he sent her running again, it might just push him over the final deadly edge.
    â€œI need someone dangerous enough to take on a monster.”
    â€œSo you came to a natural-born killer.”
    She flinched again, then snapped her spine straight. “I came to the strongest person I’ve ever known.”
    He snorted. “You wanted to talk. So talk.”
    She looked out past his shoulder. “Could we do it somewhere more private? People might drive up here.”
    â€œI don’t take strangers to my lair.” Clay was pissed and when he got pissed, he got mean.
    Talin tipped up her chin in a gesture of bravado that sent flickers of memory arcing through his mind. “Fine. We can go to my apartment in San Francisco.”
    â€œLike hell.” He occasionally worked in DarkRiver’s business HQ near